SOLAR STORM CREATED LIGHT SHOW OVER CALHOUN

(10/31/2003)

By Bob Weaver Calhoun residents who ventured outside to stare toward the northern sky, got a good taste of the reddish "northern lights" last night. One of the advantages to living in the electrically unlit world of rural West Virginia, on a clear night you can see forever, and when things are going on up there, there is a good view. The current show does not compare to others in my lifetime, where the sky was lit to mid-sky. The late Madelyn Stutler Lynch told of one such event in the early part of last century that caused farm families to collapse to their knees, certain the fore-boding lights were an omen of the second coming of Christ. The solar activity can create spectacular auroras as the charged particles slam into Earth's outer magnetic field. Solar activity can damage satellites and disrupt high-frequency radio communications, electric power networks, TV and phone signals. The show could continue tonight, an advantage for trick or treaters.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001